Before moving, Devon scanned the ground near the stream. He found abranch thick enough to use as a walking staff and long enough to be an impromptu weapon. He tested its weight, giving it a few practice swings. It felt solid.
Devon began his journey toward the hollow tree, following the navigational arrow in the corner of his eye. The terrain was a hazardous mess of roots, dense undergrowth, and alien flora.
He moved with the practiced stealth of someone who had spent their life avoiding notice. He lifted his knees high to step over the massive, gnarled tree roots that crisscrossed the forest floor like frozen black snakes. His gaze was constantly sweeping the shadows, his stick held loosely but ready to jab out
He passed several clusters of the strange plants he had cut himself on earlier. Their silver, scaled leaves looked innocent enough, but he gave them a wide berth. The ground here was littered with what looked like empty, hardened insect husks, some the size of small fists, adding to the feeling that he was walking through a dead or recently abandoned feeding ground.
The light continued to fade, making the massive trunks blend together and the shadows deepen into oppressive blackness. The eerie quiet was punctuated only by the occasional high-pitched click or rattle from the canopy above, sounds that did nothing to soothe his nerves.
After about five minutes of navigating the treacherous ground, the arrow drew him to the base of an immense, dark-barked tree. The trunk was wider than any tree he had ever seen, and near the bottom, a large section of the wood had rotted or been gouged out, leaving a dark, irregular opening easily big enough for him to climb inside.
Devon cautiously approached the entrance. He paused, raising his stick and focusing his senses. He could smell damp earth and old wood, but nothing immediately threatening.
"System," he thought, keeping his voice as quiet as possible. "Confirm the threat assessment on the interior."
[Re-analyzing Shelter Interior: No large entity signatures detected. Threat Level remains Low. Recommend immediate entry and fortification.]
Low threat was the best he could hope for. He ducked low and slipped inside the hollow.
The interior was tight, but allowed him to move around a little and he could lay down without needing to bend his knees. The floor was covered in dirt and exposed roots that twisted across the ground. He was entirely concealed within the massive trunk, protected from observation and attack from three sides by inches of ancient bark.
He was exhausted, safe for the moment, and had finally stopped shaking. He had survived the first few hours in a new, deadly world.
With a small amount of light remaining, Devon left of the hollow. Moving fast, he began gathering materials. He grabbed handfuls of the thick, luminous moss from the forest floor, piling it near the entrance. He collected a dozen sturdy, thin sticks and snapped off several softer, dried branches, building a small supply pile near his improvised home.
His final piece of work was defense. He found a piece of loose bark roughly the size of a small tabletop on a nearby tree trunk. With effort, he ripped it free and dragged it over to the hollow. It wasn't a perfect fit, but by propping it up against the doorway, he created a makeshift door that blocked the view inside and offered a small layer of security.
Once back inside, he used the sticks to create a slightly raised bed on the floor and layered the soft, thick moss over it, creating a small, insulated area that wasn't directly on the dirt or hard roots. It was small, cramped, and smelled like old wood and earth, but it would do for now.
He settled onto his makeshift bed, adjusting his position until he was comfortable, his back pressed against the thick, protective bark of the hollow tree. He could hear the strange night sounds of this world beginning outside. High-pitched clicks, the rustle of massive leaves, and deep, resonant thumps that echoed through the ground.
Devon closed his eyes. He was exhausted. He drifted into sleep, unaware of the alien world shifting and hunting just outside his temporary wooden sanctuary.
He woke with a start. Something was crawling up his leg. He let out an involuntary scream and kicked it off. It was a centipede-like creature with six eyes, hundreds of legs, and a softly glowing green carapace. His makeshift door had fallen over, most likely knocked down by the creature. It came crawling back, clicking and hissing in annoyance. He kicked it again and it tumbled backward with no visible damage. Getting up, he tried stomping on it, but it felt like he had kicked a rock, and his leg went momentarily numb.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, what do I do?" he half-screamed to himself.
[System Reminder: Focus and control advised. Threat detected. Use Void skill within controlled parameters.]
"Right, shit, fuck, the Void," he said. Grabbing a large stick he had found the night before that he thought would make a decent weapon, he tried to keep the insect at bay while focusing on creating a Void sphere. His first few attempts barely materialized before collapsing. The centipede, annoyed at being poked by his stick, bit through it with a crunch. "FUCK," he screamed again. He had been attacked by all sorts of animals while he was homeless, but never a giant centipede-like creature. He needed to calm himself.
His next attempt at creating a Void sphere finally succeeded. With the centipede trying to crawl towards him and up his leg, he pushed the void sphere towards its face. When the sphere touched the creature, the section it contacted vanished completely.
Devon froze, staring at what was left of the creature. The blackened wound from the Void sphere had erased nearly half its head and torso, leaving the rest of its body twitching violently. Thick, dark fluid spilled out across the floor of his makeshift home, mixing with his bed of moss and twigs, fragments of chitin and viscous innards that glowed faintly green. The stench hit him a moment later, sharp and nauseating.
[Combat Log: Entity "Chitterbane" Neutralized. Void Energy Reserves Increased.]
The sudden voice startled him, his pulse jumped again, but after what had just happened, he barely had the energy to react. There were more pressing problems than whatever the System was reporting, like calming his heart down before it exploded and cleaning up the disgusting mess.
He walked through the hole in the tree and sat for a moment, breathing deeply to steady himself. The air was damp and cool, carrying the faint sounds of distant movement deeper in the forest. When his heartbeat finally slowed, he stepped back inside. The sight made his stomach turn; the creature's remains had soaked into his makeshift bed of moss and twigs, staining everything.
He grimaced and began scooping the mess out, trying not to gag. The fluids clung to his skin with a sticky, oily texture. He carried the worst of it outside and tossed it behind the tree, close enough to keep in sight of his tree but far enough away that the smell would not be unbearable. He paused for a moment before going back in, listening to the forest's quiet hum, uneasy about what might be watching from the dark.
Inside, his shelter felt emptier than before. The floor was slick and bare where his bed had been, leaving him with only the rough roots and dirt to sit on. He sighed, wiped his hands on the ground, and leaned against the inner wall of the hollow, exhaustion settling in.
He woke with a start, heart thudding, his mind struggling to make sense of the dim light seeping through the cracks of his shelter. His back ached from sleeping on the roots, and for a moment he simply sat there, blinking and breathing, disoriented by the stillness. It took him a few moments to remember where he was and everything that had happened over the past day and night. He had died, been transported to a strange world, and assigned an impossible task by some kind of "System" that was in his head somehow. Then, in the middle of the night, a massive insect had crawled into his shelter and tried to kill him.
"What the fuck is my life now" he muttered.
The memory of the voice in his head from last night returned, the message that had come after he killed the creature.
"System," Devon said, "can you bring up the message from last night?"
A faint shimmer of blue light appeared before his eyes, and words formed clearly in front of him, as if projected in midair.
[Combat Log: Entity Designation "Chitterbane" Neutralized. Void Energy Reserves Increased.]
"What's a Chitterbane?"
[Chitterbane: A low-tier predatory arthropod originating from a fractured portal zone. They are highly aggressive, often hunting warm-blooded life forms for sustenance. The specimen encountered likely emerged from a minor portal breach nearby. Its presence indicates the portal has expended its contents and collapsed.]
Devon rubbed the back of his neck, thinking that over. "So that thing came from a portal? What exactly are these portals?"
[Portals are dimensional rifts connecting the Void to material worlds. They serve as gateways through which energy, entities, and anomalies manifest. Each portal is categorized by its tier, which determines the danger level and the nature of what can emerge.]
"And the tiers? What kind of monsters come from them?"
[Tier classifications range from I to IX. Tier I and II portals produce low-threat entities such as Chitterbanes, Void Gnats, and Spine Crawlers. Tiers III through V spawn intermediate entities with limited intelligence and higher aggression. Tiers VI and above are classified as catastrophic, capable of releasing large-scale Void entities and environmental corruption. Only specialized individuals can withstand exposure to higher-tier zones.]
Devon exhaled, trying to make sense of it all. "So that thing was one of the weaker ones?" he asked.
[Correct. Your survival indicates basic combat adaptability. Further encounters are statistically probable.]
Devon frowned. "And Void energy reserves increased? What does that mean?"
[Void Energy is the foundational resource that fuels your growth, abilities, and interaction with the system.]
He blinked, processing that. "So my void energy improved? Is there a way to see how much energy I have?"
[Affirmative. Displaying Status Interface.]
Another translucent screen appeared.
[Status]
Name: Devon Hale
Species: Human
Class: Voidbound (Exclusive)
Health: 42 / 50
Stamina: 38 / 50
Void Energy: 85 / 105
Skills: Void Manipulation
Status Effects: Fatigue (Mild), Malnutrition (Light)